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Sour and Civil.
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found his skiff floating about, brought it home, saying, the foolish young man was doubtless lost; but what better could be expected when he had no discreet person to take care of him.

“This grieved Dame Civil sore. She never expected to see her son again; but, feeling lonely in her cottage at the evening hour when he used to come home, the good woman accustomed herself to go down at sunset and sit beside the sea. That winter happened to be mild on the coast of the west country, and one evening when the Christmas time was near, and the rest of the village preparing to make merry, Dame Civil sat, as usual, on the sands. The tide was ebbing and the sun going down, when from the eastward came a lady clad in black, mounted on a black palfrey, and followed by a squire in the same sad clothing: as the lady came near, she said—

“‘Woe is me for my daughter, and for all that have lost by the sea!’

“‘You say well, noble lady,’ said Dame Civil. ‘Woe is me also for my son, for I have none beside him.’

“When the lady heard that, she alighted from her palfrey, and sat down by the fisherman’s mother, saying—

“‘Listen to my story. I was the widow of a

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